Life without Parole

America's New Death Penalty?

Edited by Charles Ogletree Jr.

Publication Year: 2012

Is life without parole the perfect compromise to the death penalty? Or is it as ethically fraught as capital punishment? This comprehensive, interdisciplinary anthology treats life without parole as “the new death penalty.” Editors Charles J. Ogletree, Jr. and Austin Sarat bring together original work by prominent scholars in an effort to better understand the growth of life without parole and its social, cultural, political, and legal meanings. What justifies the turn to life imprisonment? How should we understand the fact that this penalty is used disproportionately against racial minorities? What are the most promising avenues for limiting, reforming, or eliminating life without parole sentences in the United States? Contributors explore the structure of life without parole sentences and the impact they have on prisoners, where the penalty fits in modern theories of punishment, and prospects for (as well as challenges to) reform.

Cover

Ttle Page, COpyright Page

Contents

Acknowledgments

The work contained in this book was first presented at a conference
at Amherst College on December 3–4, 2010. We are grateful to our contributors
for their fine work and commitment to our project and to Matthew Brewster
and Heather Richard for their skilled research assistance. ...

Introduction: Lives on the Line: From Capital Punishment to Life without Parole

Writing in October 2005, New York Times reporter Adam Liptak
observed that “in just the last 30 years, the United States has created
something never before seen in its history and unheard of around the
globe: a booming population of prisoners whose only way out of prison
is likely to be inside a coffin ...

Part I: Life without Parole in Context

1. Mandatory Life and the Death of Equitable Discretion

The common refrain is that the death penalty is different, but one
of the most underappreciated differences between capital and noncapital
punishment is the degree to which the death penalty expressly admits—
indeed requires—an equitable determination before imposition. ...

2. Death-in-Prison Sentences: Overutilized and Underscrutinized

Over 41,000 people in the United States are serving a sentence of
life without the possibility of parole (LWOP).1 In total, more than 140,600
people are serving some form of life imprisonment.2 The data do not include
the unknown number of people sentenced to prison terms that exceed their
natural life expectancy. ...

3. Creating the Permanent Prisoner

Every year, hundreds of thousands of people churn through the great revolving
door of the American penal system. In 2006 alone, more than 840,000
people were convicted of felonies and sentenced to some period of confinement.1 Of these, approximately 460,000 were sent to state prison, with an
average sentence of 4 years and 11 months.2 ...

4. Life without Parole under Modern Theories of Punishment

Almost 10% of U.S. prisoners are serving life terms. In some states the figure
is 17% or more; in California it is 20% of all prisoners.1 Of the prisoners
sentenced to life terms, almost 30% have no possibility of parole, and the
number of prisoners serving life without parole (LWOP) has tripled in the
past sixteen years.2 ...

Part II: Prospects for Reform

5. Defending Life

I have never been a defense lawyer, let alone a capital defense lawyer.
Before becoming a law professor, however, I was a prosecutor. At the
time, my feet were “firmly” planted on the side of seeking death.1 The invitation
to contribute to this book has prompted me to reflect on those days and
on capital punishment’s often-neglected step-sister, ...

6. Life without Parole and the Hope for Real Sentencing Reform

In recent years, people seeking to limit the use of life without the
possibility of parole (LWOP) in the United States have won significant victories.
The Supreme Court in Graham v. Florida declared a sentence of LWOP
unconstitutionally cruel and unusual for juveniles who commit nonhomicide
offenses. ...

7. No Way Out? Life Sentences and the Politics of Penal Reform

The Great Recession has raised expectations that the United States
will begin to empty its jails and prisons because it can no longer afford to
keep so many people behind bars.1 As Attorney General Eric Holder told
the American Bar Association in August 2009, the country’s extraordinary
incarceration rate is “unsustainable economically.”2 ...

8. Dignity and Risk: The Long Road from Graham v. Florida to Abolition of Life without Parole

America at the start of the 21st century stands out as a nation that
embraces harsh and degrading punishments. This goes beyond our quantitative
penchant for locking up a far higher portion of our citizens than any
other country, to the qualitative way we punish.1 Evidence for this qualitative
distinction abounds. ...

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